Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Waiting for the Ferry in Shade of Pine Trees (LI2022.170)    Figure of a lady reading a poem (LI2022.134)    A ‘yellow wax’ scholar’s rock (EA2013.3)

Street in Chongqing after Japanese Bombing 1940 (LI2022.350)    Market in Qinghai (LI2022.59)    Tang Dancing Girl (LI2022.149)

River with waterwheel and cranes (LI2022.27)    Landscape with blue mountain (LI2022.70)

Letter from Ding Cong to Michael

6th September 1948

Ding Cong (1916-2009) was a cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic artist. Before the Second World War (1939-1945) and after 1949 he edited pictorial magazines. During the war he travelled extensively in west China and became a friend of Khoan and Michael after he met them in Chengdu. Their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives. From 1947 to 1948, Ding Cong and his family stayed briefly in Hong Kong, where shortages caused by the war had made life difficult. In this letter, he wrote that there was nowhere to buy good quality brushes or colours in Hong Kong and he asked Michael to purchase some painting materials for him in the UK.

Letter from Ding Cong.    Letter from Ding Cong.    Letter from Ding Cong.

Letter from Zhao Wuji to Michael

28th November 1948

As a modern master, Zhao Wuji’s (1921-2013) career in Europe started in 1948, when he came to Paris with his family. Unlike many of his compatriots, Zhao felt completely at home in Paris from the start. He studied French, drew from life under Othon Friesz (1879-1949) at La Grande Chaumière, and soon had many friends, not only among leading Paris artists such as Leger, Pierre Soulages (born 1919), Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), and Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), but also among Americans who came to Paris – Sam Francis (1923-1994), Hans Hartung (1904-1989), Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955), and others. His circle of friends grew rapidly. By 1949, he had already won his first prize for drawing. In this letter from late 1948, Zhao told Michael of his recent success in a joint exhibition with another three Chinese artists and that he had been invited to join an art salon by Chevalier. Zhao also mentions that he was invited to speak on the National Radio of France, though he was not very confident speaking French.

Letter from Zhao Wuji.    Letter from Zhao Wuji.